Sunday March 11, 2012
What a day, after riding hard yesterday and going in a break of 5 to hold off for a 2nd place finish in the Ronde Von Grant Race, I anticipated keeping things simple today and sitting in most of the race. Well that was my plan at least until I started the race. Mick and Alan were down in Louisiana today racing in Rouge Roubaix so that left Max and Chuck for teammates in the race. Max started out well with several strong pulls at the front then had a mishap mechanical on the start of the second lap that left him chasing the field the rest of the day. Chuck did well with his first race of the year and rode strong with a pack finish on the day.
I went out with the plan to keep things easy, stay to the front, and to go with any break of 3 or more. On the first lap Cahaba Cycles sent a guy off the front and no one wanted to chase, so he was able to stay out for a while before getting caught but it made for an awkward first lap. Cahaba and Spring City were probably the best represented teams there today with 4+ riders in the field from each so I knew Cahaba wouldn’t chase their own guys down and there were not many people stepping up to do work, other than a core group of riders. I did some pulls up front but knowing I had no teammates that would counter an attack if one of the other teams went, I rode with the mentality of never pulling harder or longer than needed if someone was to counter. I did manage to get with Larry from Cahaba and said I would help do work for them if they promised to not attack me after pulling and they held true on the day, which made me feel better about racing stronger on the front.
Around the end of the last lap I began cramping in both my hamstrings so I immediately went from the front 5 to off the back. Chuck was kind enough to drop back with me to make sure I was okay only for me to put in back in the big ring and do several big ring pulls to help stretch out my cramps, and in the process leave him to get back to the group on his own.
The finish this week was at the top of a steep mile+ climb several miles from last week’s finish. Over the next several miles until we reached the climb I hung on the back of the pack, which was now an easy pace with everyone saving up energy for the climb. On the last lap a Steel City guy had launch an attack and held it so far so at the bottom of the climb, as we rounded the corner we heard, “One Minute, One Minute to the leader!” So having never seen this climb, I arrogantly dropped down and attacked at the base to go from mid 20’s to 7th or 8th wheel.
At the first hairpin turn I dropped to the inside, which was a good deal steeper than the outside of the turn, and hammered hard out of the saddle to jump 3 guys and get a gap. I slowly could see people in front of me and knew I had to suffer if I wanted to podium. The next hairpin I went wide to the outside and got another rider. I slowly worked to reel the next couple riders in while constantly going from standing to seated, back to standing to seated, and so on because even thought I was completely anaerobic, I was still fighting my cramps and it was all I could do to not move a certain way and have my legs knot up. I was able to pick off every rider and then I saw the Steel City guy so slowly rolled up to him and got within about 10ft before I stood and hammered hoping to get a gap so he wouldn’t give chase. Then I saw the 1km sign, I knew I was close so I regrouped and focused on breathing and began anticipating someone attacking because I could hear chain noise behind me (by the way this noise is probably going to haunt me for a while because when you are anaerobic, seeing stars, a little delirious, and fighting cramps in both legs while climbing a hill at 10%-14% gradient, that noise was about the only thing that kept me going.) I never once looked back the whole climb but I knew they were there. Looking back over my Garmin results I noticed that from the base of the climb it took me right at 7 minutes to the top and I went between 191 and 196 bpm the whole time. I only looked down at my hr monitor once the whole climb because I knew seeing something like this would have mentally sent me over the edge, good thing I didn't.
I would go from my smallest gear, 39x26, to one bigger and then listen to see if the chasers would gear up or if they would just maintain. I knew if I didn’t hear anyone shift then they were cooked and I was safe. To no avail, every time I shifted, Kyle would shift, and in most cases instantly so there was no chance of sitting up a bit for a quick rest, it was suffer more and then they will have to suffer more mentality at this point. In the end all my suffering paid off and I was able to roll across the line taking 1st place. Kyle and David were wheel to wheel crossing the line with David taking 2nd and Kyle from NSAT taking 3rd.
Sumatanga Training Race #3 Here is my Garmin from the race.
And since I'm tired and don't feel like writing a summary of yesterday's race in Grant, AL here is my Garmin from that race as well, I was able to hold a break of 5 after one of two laps and attacked on the final climb of the day to get 2nd by over several hundred yards to a hill top finish.
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